Return of the Woodcutter

"I thought bloody eclipses only happened during daytime," Aito said, confused. 

There was no indication in Gwen knowledge of a bloody eclipse occurring at night. Now that he thought about it, there was none saying it only occurred during daytime either. It just said it would happen once in a while. 

"There are two types of eclipses. Solar is the most well-known," Sheyla explained. "People tend to forget about Lunar eclipses that only take place at night. Probably why challengers didn't worry about nighttime. As for why it never occurred until now, I don't know. Probably related to luck or…" 

"Or the moderator decided to unleash hell on us," Aito added. 

At that moment, shadows started to assemble in the city's streets and rooftops.. Aito and Sheyla looked at all sides of the belltower. Hobgoblins were exiting their hiding place. Their rendez-vous point was quite obvious. 

Hundreds of hobgoblins were gathering en masse. Soon, there'll be thousands of them. 

From up above the city, Allan watched the spectacle with a slight smile, looking forward to this entertaining event. 

He was allowed to activate the blood eclipse once in a while but had always done it during daytime to avoid too many casualties. 

Nighttime was a no go since he was pretty much certain every challenger would die. A lunar eclipse was even more bloody after all. Challengers didn't know it but a solar eclipse summoned half of the hobs in the city, but a lunar eclipse summoned all of them. Also, hobgoblins wouldn't hesitate to attack the cathedral during a lunar eclipse.

Veterans or not, a great number of people would die tonight depending on how they all fare. With the staircases closed because of the Cooldown period, there was no escaping it. 

Only the strong would survive this event, or no one will. 

Allan activated the bloody eclipse tonight in hope of a good show. Only a few fifth-floor moderators have ever activated the Lunar Eclipse. Supposedly, it was too dangerous. 

But he had a special guest on this floor that would probably leave in a day or two. So, he might as well take advantage of this situation to test him. 

'No matter how strong a challenger, he cannot overcome this obstacle alone,' Allan thought, eager to see what this particular night had in store for him. 'So what will you do, black challenger? Will you choose cooperation, or… well I don't know what else he could choose hahaha.' 

***

Red moonlight passed through the cathedral's windows. Intrigued, challengers who were preparing to go to sleep lifted their heads to look at the unknown phenomenon. 

Anxiety struck at their very heart because they all knew what that meant. Silence loomed over them. Petrified by the idea of a bloody eclipse, most of them stayed still, staring at the windows filtering the crimson light. 

Hobgoblins might reach them in a few minutes, yet they were paralyzed, unprepared. Every prey facing a predator stronger than them would be, even if that certain prey had faced many trials until now. 

Finally, panic struck them. 

"A, a, a bloody eclipse!" 

"We are all doomed!" 

"Did the gods abandoned us?" 

Challengers all around trembled in fear. From his dusty corner, Ogoro watched the chaos with serious eyes. All those supposedly battle-hardened people were now acting like children. 

Well, faced with such a desperate situation, it couldn't be helped.

Having killed many people and faced more than his fair share of deadly encounters, Ogoro wasn't scared of death. But reaching such a mental state was impossible without staring at death in the eyes multiple times or living through events so traumatic it'd leave a scar in one's mind for an entire life. There would also be rare people who feared something else more than they'd fear death. 

Many challengers alive today had faced death multiple times. Enough time to be accustomed to it, but not enough to accept their own mortality. Even more so after going through a revival. 

Having lived through a Bloody Eclipse already, George was calmer than the others but couldn't deny the situation was close to hopeless. 

"No, the gods have not abandoned us yet," said a bald woman with wrinkles standing amidst the gods statues. "Gather around me, fervent followers of the divine!" 

'Fuck, not her…,' George thought. He knew her as Olmera, an old woman who praised the gods too much for his taste. 'That old hag is too delusional. She will probably do more harm than good. We're all doomed….' 

"Gather! Gather lost lambs! Don't you see what this is all about?" Olmera said, pointing at the rose window behind her filtering the red light. "This is a trial sent by the gods!" 

Lost and full of anxiety, challengers turned towards one of the few people that kept their calm. At that moment, to them, Olmera exuded an aura of confidence and serenity. That somehow, appeased their minds ever so slightly. 

"What do you mean?" 

"A trial? This looks more like a punishment!" 

Olmera shook her head, "No, this isn't a punishment. Don't you see? A Bloody Eclipse never occurred during nighttime before! It's a new trial to test our minds and resolve! No hobs will attack us tonight!" 

"What nonsense are you spouting!? Hobgoblins always attack us during Bloody Eclipses!" 

"That's right!" 

"There is nowhere to run. Even the staircases are blocked! This is punishment, not a trial!" 

Try as she may, but Olmera's convincing wasn't working. However, the wise-looking—but in fact delirious—woman hasn't said her last words yet. 

"Where do you think we are right now?" She said, pointing at the statues with the staff in her hand, "This is a sacred place! Have you ever seen a filthy creature enter this place before? Never!" 

Challengers began to discuss amongst themselves. It was true that never had a hob walked in the cathedral to attack challengers. Be it during daytime, nighttime or Bloody Eclipses. 

Even George who doubted the woman's words couldn't disagree with her statement, well, part of it. The cathedral was a safe house after all. 

"What, what do you think we should do then?" Said a challenger in the crowd. 

Olmera smiled warmly and lifted both hands. "Let us offer the gods our prayers. Kneel with me fervent followers. While we stay and pray within these sacred walls, no evil creatures of the night will dare attack us. The gods are good and all mighty. This trial, tonight, is just to test our faith! Pray with me, fervent followers! Kneel and pray with me!" 

Aito arrived from the stairs with Sheyla on his toes. Uncertain challengers were still standing while an old woman was kneeling in front of the gods' statues. One by one, a few challengers started to kneel, creating a conformist chain reaction.

"Pray with me! Fervent followers! Pray with me for our salvation lie in divine hands!" Olmera said. 

'What the actual fuck?' Aito thought. 'Are they that desperate?' 

Hobgoblins were heading their way. Since there were usually none of them one kilometer around the cathedral, it'd take a few minutes for the creatures to reach this place, however, they needed this time to make preparations. 

"Why are they praying?" Sheyla said, just as stunned as him. 

"I don't know, but we don't have time for this," Aito said. 

He had plans of making them move their asses by warning them of the incoming enemies. But seeing as they were all on their knees, it might take some convincing before they'd accept to help him prepare the cathedral for the battle to come. 

"What should we do?" Sheyla asked. 

There was no time to convince the challengers in this room, plus he thought himself as bad at convincing people. They'd be forced to fight when the hobs come, anyway. 

In the meantime, if he wanted some preparations to be done by then, he'd do it himself. It'd be faster and more efficient this way. 

He looked at a big chandelier hanging on the ceiling. Those were so large it could probably fit two or three people on it. 

"Sheyla, can you get up there?" 

Sheyla traced his gaze to the chandelier nearest to the entrance, and understood his intention, "Yeah, no problem."

"When the battle starts, use the vantage point to keep me informed on our enemy's movements." 

"Will do," she said, "what about you?" 

"I'll make some preparations," he said, heading for Belmand's four-meter-tall statue. 

Meanwhile, Sheyla ran towards the entrance, jumped on a wall and started to climb her way up, putting her passive skill Parkour to good use. Once she was high enough, she jumped to the chandelier and hoisted herself. 

From up there, she had an overall vision of what was happening in the whole cathedral but also outside. There were no hobs in sight, for now. 

Aito arrived next to Olmera who was face against the ground. She lifted her head only to see him lengthen his morpho ax. 

He then touched the statue, reduced its weight by 3.5 times, coated his weapon with Durability, and took a large powerful swing. 

Halfway through reaching his target, he tripled his weapon's weight, giving it more momentum and destructive power. 

BAM!

Olmera's face drew a horrified expression when the morpho ax chopped down Belmand's statue from its feet. 

The statue fell towards the challengers but Aito caught it before it could crush someone and dropped it to the ground. Grabbing Belmand by its now footless legs, he dragged the statue to the cathedral entrance under awry gazes.

Some challengers had intrigued expressions while others were in awe of his strength and some, much like Olmera, were horrified. 

After seeing at least one god and having been resurrected, all challengers now knew divine beings were real. With material proof that gods existed, more and more challengers praised their "glory" every day. Little by little they were becoming real followers. 

Having faced death multiple times, they looked for help or salvation from divine beings. 

Aito didn't care, though. They could pray all they wanted; he knew the gods would never help them for this particular crisis. 

He lifted the statue and used its legs first to bar the double doors that made up the main entrance, then returned it to its original weight, only to increase it again by 3.5 times. Problem was, Belmand's head didn't offer a stable foundation to support the doors. 

With a crooked smile, he cut down the statue's head, imagining it was the real one. 

"Perfect," he said, kicking the head to a corner. 

Of course, Aito didn't have any other motive whatsoever behind cutting Belmand's head than efficiency.

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